Game 19: Wichita St 1/16 1:00 ESPN

[Lobot]

Away game at the Roundhouse and we better bring it for both halves. WSU still has Tyson Etienne and Ricky Council IV, Dexter Dennis and Morris Udeze out there so even though they are 9-6 this season, there is a core of really good players stilla round from last season.

It's been a tale of two seasons for the Shockers. They went 9-3 in the OOC portion of the schedule with losses to Arizona, Kansas St and a weird loss to North Texas. Starting the conference portion of the schedule they have lost all 3 contests they've been able to play, including a home loss to Tulane last night.

Wichita does not have a lot of height on the roster. There's one guy taller than 6'9 and he's a freshman from Sweden. Our bigs could have themselves a day if we play this right.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...tats/_/id/2724

[RedDog]

It was a snowy wintery night with nothing to do so I watched the game a second time and counted bad/forced/contested shots.
JD took 7, MS took 6 and DD had a better than usual selection night and only took 4, but that's 17 of our total 57 shots! This doesn't in fairness include shots taken at the end of the shot clock or shots taken in the lane that were contested but good attempts. Other than those 3 players only Ody had 1 shot that we probably wouldn't want to see so the rest of the team has a pretty good handle on their roles.
So 31.5% of our shots, 18 of 57, made me jump up and scream at my TV. I had to take extra meds tonight to get through a double header. By the way, its a lot more relaxing and enjoyable to watch the game if you tape it, know we won, fast forward through all the commercials, and view it a couple of hours later.
Just imagine how much more effective we would be if we could dramatically reduce these bad shots. Shooting percentage would go through the roof, assists would too, and God forbid, so would our wins!
I don't mean to pick on our kids but I am hopeful that Wes is having the same conversation with them. Its not the number of shots anyone is taking, its the quality of those shots and the likelihood for success. They can shoot nothing but 3's for all I care if they are set up by passing and kickouts and uncontested.
I think it sends a good message that we can win a quality road, conference game with JD scoring only 2 points, and Victor and A.J. not playing. Spread the wealth fellows, pass the ball and take good shots.

[Rufus]

Im seeing Newman becoming less and less apprehensive. He seemed like he was trying to avoid stepping on certain toes early on in the season. Hes still gets stuck at times, has no idea what hes going to do with the ball when he slashes and drives and often gets tied up or turns the ball over. I do like his 3 shot when its all net and would love to see he and MAW get smoking hot with lefty three's raining down, especially if its raining on houston. But when you have two guys driving and slashing the lane multiple times and come away for a total of nine times with no points, no fouls called, and a lost ball its just hard to watch. When MS learns that he doesn't have to go 100 mph all the time hes going to be a much much more effective player. We are seeing progress being made though. Slow but sure but it is being realized.

[GoBearcats31]

The first thought that crossed my mind when the game was won = this felt like a Mick Cronin team type win. Gritty. Grinding it out. Found away.

- David DeJulius has been balling.
- John Newman III has been strong of late.
- Have really liked what I've seen from Mika Adams-Woods recently too, and I was surprised he was on the bench fairly late in the game in favor of Saunders, but MAW was there in closing time.
- Though the lineup for DeJulius, Adams-Woods, Newman, Davenport, Koval at the end was strong and -- unless it's very matchup dependent -- I'd like to see more of that.

[RedDog]

Very good quality win. Example after example of the issues we need to still address to be pretty darn good.
When the little guards penetrate (often out of control), they are picking up 3 defenders all thinking block shot. IF IF IF they kick that out, we have capable shooters when the guys get the ball, inside out or from the flow of the offense, and have time to stroke the 3 ball. I am running out of patience with our consistent jacking of contested 3's from our stat hunters. When our shot selection is good and our shots are properly distributed throughout the lineup, we are pretty good. When DD and JD and Mike deviate from the team concept, start playing street ball, you can see a forced shot coming and everything breaks down. We are making progress for sure but we still need a buyin from our supposed stars.
The Koval video was great to see. Now take that spirit and cohesion to the court.
If we hadn't crashed and burned in Mumphis, we would be on a pretty nice roll right now and in AAC contention.

[longtimefan]

I just wanted to share this from the team in the locker room.

The Koval game. It’s a W.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CYze8xK...dium=copy_link

Love that.

[Lobot]

I just wanted to share this from the team in the locker room.

The Koval game. It’s a W.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CYze8xK...dium=copy_link

[leo from jersey]

Any win on the road in conference is a good win. Especially with a first year coach and lots of new players. Seeing improvement but sometimes it’s two steps forward and one step back. Today was a step forward.

by a couple of the players ( Koval and Newman),and the rebounding for he most part. The hurry up and take a shot twins stayed the same only they were guarded. Please don't mistake that for being cold. They had defenders on them. People are just as quick as MS. JD took poor shots as usual due to the defense and his need to be the star.

[Pharmfam]

Any win on the road in conference is a good win. Especially with a first year coach and lots of new players. Seeing improvement but sometimes it’s two steps forward and one step back. Today was a step forward.

[leo from jersey]

ddj is our best player

Newman is coming on. We need JN and DD to sit on JD and MS. Control the tempo on offense.

[leo from jersey]

He was a total liability both offensively and defensively. He did finally make one fg and free throws. I realize he's the best player we have. Even good players have bad games.

Led the team? Surely you don't think he was better today than Dejulius or Koval.

I thought Newman was the stud and I disagree with JD being the best. His being out of control is a mark of a bad and poorly coached player. Yes he can get hot, but once again today, his and MS's throwing them up got the cats to go down ten. When DD and especially JN controled the game the cats were back in it and won it.

[Bearcat9796]

ddj is our best player

[Oldtimer_UC_fan]

JD led the team at +11 today. He was doing more than just trying to score, which wasn't going well for him today.

He was a total liability both offensively and defensively. He did finally make one fg and free throws. I realize he's the best player we have. Even good players have bad games.

Led the team? Surely you don't think he was better today than Dejulius or Koval.

[leo from jersey]

MS 1.5 on 4 this time - JD watching a man shoot while JD was close to the basket - kept watching didn't bother to turn around WSU got the rebound. Perhaps JD will comment on the shooter's form. Newman was the stud with Koval & DD .Over all better rebounding which produced the win along with some clutch Defense. I was "shocked" seeing defensive rebounds at the end as were WSU perhaps. I am happy with the win, but MS needs some coaching as MM needs to be taught how to anticipate the moves while on defense. The path to the post was open with him there.


any win = groovy, but on national TV even with the NFL on, this was huge.

[swilsonsp4]

Davenport too

JD led the team at +11 today. He was doing more than just trying to score, which wasn't going well for him today.